home Migration When was the Trans-Siberian Railway built? The Trans-Siberian Railway is the railway backbone of Russia

When was the Trans-Siberian Railway built? The Trans-Siberian Railway is the railway backbone of Russia

The Trans-Siberian Railway (Great Siberian Way) surpasses any railway line on our planet; it took almost a quarter of a century to build - from 1891 to 1916, and its total length is more than 10,000 kilometers. The Trans-Siberian Railway reliably connects Russian western and southern ports, as well as railway exits to Europe (St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Novorossiysk), on the one hand, with Pacific ports and railway exits to Asia (Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Vanino, Zabaikalsk). The history of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway will be discussed below...

So, we continue the series of stories about construction projects of the century on LifeGlobe. This highway is one of the longest in the world, and the most difficult in the world in terms of construction conditions. The Trans-Siberian Railway is one of the most important achievements, along with the DneproGes, BAM and other construction projects of the century, which we have already talked about. Let's look at the history of the highway: They started talking about construction back in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1857, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N.N. Muravyov-Amursky raised the issue of construction railway on the Siberian outskirts of Russia. He instructed military engineer D. Romanov to conduct research and draw up a project for the construction of a railway from the Amur to De-Kastri Bay. The first practical impetus for the construction of the grandiose highway was given by the emperor Russian Empire Alexander III. In 1886, the sovereign imposed a resolution on the report of the Irkutsk Governor-General:

“I have read so many reports of the governors general of Siberia and I must admit with sadness and shame that the government has so far done almost nothing to meet the needs of this rich but neglected region. And it’s high time, it’s high time.”

Alexander III

The Russian merchants especially actively supported the idea of construction. Thus, in the all-submissive address of the Siberian merchants in 1868, it was emphasized

“We alone, Sovereign, Your Siberian children, are far from You, if not in heart, then in space. This is why we suffer great needs.
The riches of the arable soil lie useless for Thy throne and for us. Grant us a railway, bring us closer to You, alienated from You. They commanded that Siberia be integrated into a single state.”

At the same time, there were also principled opponents to the construction of a railway in Siberia. They frightened with rotten swamps and dense taiga, terrible cold and the inability to develop Agriculture. They even urgently demanded an urgent medical examination to determine the mental abilities of the defenders of the idea of building railways in Siberia. The acting governor of Tobolsk, A. Sologub, responded to the government’s request about the possibility and necessity of building a highway in Siberia, that all sorts of swindlers, buyers and the like would come to the province with railways, that a fight would break out between foreigners and Russian merchants, that the people would be ruined, and all the benefits will go to foreigners and crooks. And the most significant: “Observing the preservation of order in the region will become impossible, and, in conclusion, supervision of political exiles will become more difficult due to easier escapes.”

The Committee of Ministers considered on December 18, 1884 and January 2, 1885 the submission of the Ministry of Railways. As before, the votes were divided. Therefore, the Committee of Ministers came to the conclusion that indicating the specific direction of the road within Siberia due to the lack of information about the economy of many regions of Western Siberia, especially the movement of goods along them, is premature. At the same time, he recognized that it was possible to allow, without starting the construction of the road from Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan, the construction of the road from Samara to Ufa. This decision was influenced by the statement of the Chairman of the State Council, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, about the importance of the state-owned artillery factories of the Zlatoust district for the country. The decision of the Committee of Ministers was approved by the emperor on January 6, and on January 25 he allowed the construction of the road to begin at the expense of the treasury. Construction work began in the spring of 1886, and in September 1886 the route to Ufa was opened. The work was supervised by the famous engineer K. Mikhailovsky. In the same year, under his leadership, construction of the road to Zlatoust began. Construction work had to be carried out in mountainous areas. Many artificial structures were erected. In August 1890, trains ran along the entire Samara-Zlatoust road

According to estimates by the Committee for the Construction of the Siberian Railway, the cost of the project reached 350 million rubles in gold. Almost all work was done by hand, using an axe, saw, shovel, pick and wheelbarrow. Despite this, about 500–600 km were laid annually railway track. History has never seen such a pace. The most acute and intractable problem was ensuring the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. labor force. The need for skilled workers was satisfied by the recruitment and transfer of construction workers from the center of the country to Siberia. At the height of construction work, 84–89 thousand people were employed on the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was carried out in harsh natural and climatic conditions. Almost the entire length of the route was laid through sparsely populated or deserted areas, in impassable taiga. It crossed mighty Siberian rivers, numerous lakes, areas of high swampiness and permafrost (from Kuenga to Bochkarevo, now Belogorsk). The area around Lake Baikal (Baikal station - Mysovaya station) presented exceptional difficulties for the builders. Here it was necessary to blow up rocks, build tunnels, and erect artificial structures in the gorges of mountain rivers flowing into Lake Baikal.

The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway required enormous funds. According to preliminary calculations of the Committee for the Construction of the Siberian Railway, its cost was determined at 350 million rubles. gold, therefore, in order to speed up and reduce the cost of construction, in 1891-1892. for the Ussuriyskaya line and the West Siberian line (from Chelyabinsk to the Ob River) simplified technical conditions were taken as a basis. Thus, according to the recommendations of the Committee, they reduced the width of the roadbed in embankments, excavations and mountain areas, as well as the thickness of the ballast layer, laid lightweight rails and shortened sleepers, reduced the number of sleepers per 1 km of track, etc. Capital construction was envisaged only for large railways bridges, and medium and small bridges were supposed to be built wooden. The distance between stations was allowed up to 50 versts; track buildings were built on wooden poles. Here builders first encountered permafrost. Traffic along the Trans-Baikal Railway was opened in 1900. And in 1907, at Mozgon station, the world’s first building on permafrost was built, which still stands today. A new method of constructing buildings on permafrost has been adopted in Canada, Greenland and Alaska.

In terms of the speed of construction (within 12 years), the length (7.5 thousand km), the difficulties of construction and the volume of work performed, the Great Siberian Railway had no equal in the whole world. In conditions of almost complete roadlessness, a lot of time and money was spent on delivering the necessary building materials - and in fact everything had to be imported except timber. For example, for the bridge over the Irtysh and for the station in Omsk, the stone was transported 740 versts by rail from Chelyabinsk and 580 versts from the banks of the Ob, as well as by water on barges from quarries located on the banks of the Irtysh 900 versts above the bridge. Metal structures for the bridge over the Amur were manufactured in Warsaw and delivered by rail to Odessa, and then transported by sea to Vladivostok, and from there by rail to Khabarovsk. In the fall of 1914, a German cruiser sank in Indian Ocean a Belgian steamer that carried steel parts for the last two trusses of the bridge, which delayed the completion of the work by a year

Trans-Siberian Railway already in the first period of operation it revealed its great importance for economic development and contributed to the acceleration and growth of the turnover of goods. However, the road's capacity turned out to be insufficient. Traffic on the Siberian and Trans-Baikal railways became extremely tense during the Russian-Japanese War, when troops poured in from the west. The highway could not cope with the movement of troops and the delivery of military cargo. During the war, the Siberian Railway carried only 13 trains per day, so a decision was made to reduce the transportation of civil goods and, after a few decades, to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline (more information about the construction of the BAM at the link)

The train departs from Moscow, crosses the Volga and then turns southeast towards the Urals, where it - some 1,800 kilometers from Moscow - passes the border between Europe and Asia. From Yekaterinburg, a large industrial center in the Urals, the route goes to Omsk and Novosibirsk, through the Ob - one of the mighty Siberian rivers with intensive shipping, and further to Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei. Then the train goes to Irkutsk, overcomes mountain range By south coast Baikal, cuts off the corner of the Gobi Desert and, having passed Khabarovsk, heads for the final destination of the route - Vladivostok. There are 87 cities on the Trans-Siberian Railway with a population ranging from 300 thousand to 15 million people. The 14 cities through which the Trans-Siberian Railway passes are the centers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. In the regions served by the highway, more than 65% of the coal produced in Russia is mined, almost 20% of oil refining and 25% of commercial timber production are carried out. More than 80% of the main deposits are concentrated here natural resources, including oil, gas, coal, timber, ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. In the east, through the border stations of Khasan, Grodekovo, Zabaikalsk, Naushki, the Transsib provides access to the railway network North Korea, China and Mongolia, and in the west, through Russian ports and border crossings with the former republics Soviet Union- V European countries. The Trans-Siberian Railway is indicated by a red line on the map, the green line is the BAM

The entire Trans-Siberian Railway is divided into several sections:

1. The Ussuri Railway, with a total length of 769 kilometers with thirty-nine separate points, entered permanent operation in November 1897. It became the first railway in the Far East.

2. West Siberian road. With the exception of the watershed between Ishim and Irtysh, it passes through flat terrain. The road rises only at the approaches to the bridges over big rivers. Only to bypass reservoirs, ravines and when crossing rivers does the route deviate from a straight line

3. Construction of the Central Siberian Road began in January 1898. Along its length there are bridges across the rivers Tom, Iya, Uda, Kiya. Unique bridge The bridge across the Yenisei was designed by an outstanding bridge builder, Professor L.D. Proskuryakov.

4. The Trans-Baikal Railway is part of the Great Siberian Railway, which starts from the Mysovaya station on Lake Baikal and ends at the Sretensk pier on the Amur. The route runs along the shores of Lake Baikal and crosses numerous mountain rivers. Construction of the road began in 1895 under the leadership of engineer A. N. Pushechnikov.

5. After the signing of an agreement between Russia and China, construction began on the Manzhursky road connecting the Siberian Railway with Vladivostok. The new road, 6,503 kilometers long, made it possible to open through railway traffic from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok.

6. The construction of the Circum-Baikal section began at the very last stage (in 1900), since it is the most difficult and expensive area. The construction of the most difficult section of the road between capes Aslomov and Sharazhangai was headed by engineer A. V. Liverovsky. The length of this highway is an eighteenth of the total length of the road, and its construction required a fourth of the total cost of the road. Throughout the journey, the train passes through twelve tunnels and four galleries. The Circum-Baikal Railway is a unique monument engineering architecture. On May 17, 1891, Tsar Alexander III issued a decree on the beginning of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, “ordering now to begin the construction of a continuous railway across the whole of Siberia, which will connect the abundant Siberian regions with a network of internal rail communications.” At the beginning of 1902, the construction of the Circum-Baikal Railway began, headed by engineer B.U. Savrimovich. The railway track along the shore of Lake Baikal was built mainly in 2 years 3 months and put into operation almost a year ahead of schedule (which was greatly facilitated by the outbreak of hostilities in the Far East). On September 30, 1904, the working movement on the Circum-Baikal Railway began (the Minister of Railways, Prince M.I. Khilkov, traveled on the first train from the port of Baikal to Kultuk), and on October 15, 1905, permanent traffic was opened. In the photo: tunnel No. 8 broken through the rock of Cape Tolstoy.

7. In 1906, work began on the Amur Road route, which is divided into the North Amur Line (from Kerak station to the Burey River, 675 kilometers long with a branch to Blagoveshchensk) and the East Amur Line.

In the 1990s - 2000s, a number of measures were taken to modernize the Trans-Siberian Railway, designed to increase the capacity of the line. In particular, it was reconstructed railroad bridge through the Amur near Khabarovsk, as a result of which the last single-track section of the Trans-Siberian Railway was eliminated. Further modernization of the road is expected due to the obsolescence of the infrastructure and rolling stock. Preliminary negotiations are underway with Japan, aimed at the possibility of building Shinkansen-type tracks, which will reduce the total travel time from Vladivostok to Moscow from 6 days to 2-3. On January 11, 2008, China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany entered into an agreement on a project to optimize Beijing-Hamburg freight traffic

The creation of the Trans-Siberian Railway is the greatest achievement of the Russian people. With difficulties and joys, the builders completed the road. They paved it on their bones, blood and humiliation, but still managed to do this incredibly hard work. This road allowed Russia to transport a huge number of passengers and cargo. Every year, up to 100 million tons of cargo are transported along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Thanks to the construction of the highway, uninhabited areas of Siberia were populated. If the Trans-Siberian Railway had not been built, Russia would probably have lost most of its northern territories

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The Trans-Siberian Railway is a powerful double-track electrified railway line with a length of about 10 thousand km, equipped with modern means of information and communication. It is the longest railway in the world, a natural extension.

In the east, through the border stations of Khasan, Grodekovo, Zabaikalsk, Naushki, the Trans-Siberian Railway provides access to the railway network of North Korea, China and Mongolia, and in the west, through Russian ports and border crossings with the former republics of the Soviet Union - to European countries.

The highway passes through the territory of 20 constituent entities of the Russian Federation and 5 federal districts. These resource-rich regions have significant export and import potential. In the regions served by the highway, more than 65% of the coal produced in Russia is mined, almost 20% of oil refining and 25% of commercial timber production are carried out. More than 80% of the country's industrial potential and basic natural resources are concentrated here, including oil, gas, coal, timber, ferrous and non-ferrous metal ores, etc. There are 87 cities on the Trans-Siberian Railway, of which 14 are centers of constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

More than 50% of foreign trade and transit cargo is transported via the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is included as a priority route in communication between Europe and Asia in the projects of international organizations UNECE, UNESCAP, OSJD.

See also the photo gallery "History of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway"

Advantages of transportation along the Trans-Siberian Railway compared to sea routes

Reducing cargo transit time by more than 2 times: The transit time of a container train from China to Finland via the Trans-Siberian Railway is less than 10 days, and the travel time by sea is 28 days.
Low level of political risks: up to 90% of the route passes through the territory of the Russian Federation - a state with a stable democratic system of government, a stable political climate and a confidently growing economy.
Reducing the number of cargo transshipments to a minimum, which reduces costs for cargo owners and prevents the risk of accidental damage to cargo during transshipment.

Currently, a significant part of cargo flows in the East-West direction goes by sea. The dominant or almost monopoly position of sea carriers in this direction does not allow shippers to count on a reduction in the transport component of their costs. In this regard, rail transportation is a reasonable economic alternative to sea transportation.

Main routes of container trains passing through the Trans-Siberian Railway

Art. Nakhodka-Vostochnaya - st. Martsevo (delivery of Hyundai Motors Co. components from Busan to the car assembly plant in Taganrog).
Nakhodka - Moscow.
Nakhodka - Brest.
Zabaikalsk/Nakhodka - Kaliningrad/Klaipeda.
Beijing - Moscow.
Kaliningrad/Klaipeda - Moscow (Mercury).
Helsinki - Moscow ("Northern Lights").
Berlin - Moscow ("East Wind").
Brest - Ulaanbaatar ("Mongolian vector - 1").
Hohhot - Duisburg ("Mongolian vector - 2").
Baltic countries - Kazakhstan/Central Asia ("Baltic - Transit").
Nakhodka - Almaty/Uzbekistan.
Brest - Alma-Ata ("Kazakhstan vector").

Service

The use of modern information technologies that provide full control over the passage of trains and inform customers in real time about the location, progress along the entire route, and the arrival of a container or cargo at any point in Russia.
Using electronic cargo declaration technology: due to this, the time for cargo inspection has been reduced from 3 days to 1.5 hours.
A simplified procedure according to which all containers in a container train follow one transport document. This customs practice is used when transporting components from South Korea to the car assembly plant in Taganrog.
Using improved technology for the operation of commercial inspection points (CIS), which are equipped with modern means of monitoring the condition of cars and containers on trains.
Monitoring the safety of cargo along the route.

Prospects for the Trans-Siberian Railway

The Government of the Russian Federation and JSC Russian Railways have developed and are implementing a set of measures to further increase the transit potential of the entire transport corridor between Europe and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, formed on the basis of the Trans-Siberian Railway, namely:

large-scale investment projects in the eastern part of the Trans-Siberian Railway to ensure the growth of railway traffic and transit between Russia and China;
the necessary development is carried out railway stations on the border with Mongolia, China and North Korea;
approaches to seaports are being strengthened;
Container terminals are being modernized in accordance with international standards.
A comprehensive reconstruction of the Karymskaya - Zabaikalsk section is underway to ensure increasing volumes of cargo transportation to China (primarily oil).

In accordance with the “Strategy for the Development of Railway Transport in the Russian Federation until 2030”, it is planned to specialize the Trans-Siberian Railway for the passage of specialized container trains and for passenger traffic.

The Coordination Council for Trans-Siberian Transportation (CSTP), together with the management of JSC Russian Railways, is preparing concept for the development of trans-Siberian transportation for the period until 2020 A. The concept provides:

formation of a systematic approach to the development of Trans-Siberian container transportation on railways, sea sections, and ports with the participation of forwarding associations of Europe, Russia, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Austria, as well as forwarding companies;
development and application of competitive tariffs for the transportation of foreign trade and transit cargo, taking into account the directions of cargo flows and the conditions for transporting goods along alternative routes;
further improvement of technology and organization of transportation of transit and foreign trade goods along the Trans-Siberian route (TSR);
improving the conditions and principles of joint activities of railways, shipping companies, ports, forwarders and operators - members of CCTT to attract cargo to TSM;
security High Quality service in order to attract cargo to TSM on the basis of coordination at the international level of the activities of participants in trans-Siberian cargo transportation (compliance with delivery deadlines, cargo safety);
information support for the transportation process via FCM (providing customers with real-time information about the progress of goods to their destination);
increasing the processing capabilities of ports in the east and west of Russia;
creation of modern logistics centers with warehouse complexes in the Moscow hub, in other industrial centers and in the Far East;
further development of transport links between Asian countries, Russia, CIS countries, Central and of Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltics.

On March 30, 1891, an imperial decree was issued on the laying of the Great Siberian Road. "The Siberian Railway, this great national cause, must be carried out by Russian people and from Russian materials,” the committee for the construction of the Siberian Railway issued a resolution.

Start of construction

On March 30, 1891, an imperial decree was issued on the laying of the Great Siberian Road. And on May 19 of the same year, the laying of the first stone of the railway took place, which was carried out by the son of Alexander III, Nikolai Alexandrovich. It is worth noting that the construction itself was carried out in the harsh climatic conditions of the Russian taiga. And the area around Lake Baikal was covered with rocks, which had to be blown up and artificial embankments erected to lay the highway.

It took a lot to build the Trans-Siberian Railway. Money. Initially, its cost was 350 million rubles, but it is worth remembering that in those days the ruble was worth orders of magnitude more expensive than it is now, that is, the cost of the Trans-Siberian Railway was truly colossal. The main workforce was exiled soldiers and prisoners. At the height of construction work, the number of construction workers reached 89,000 people.

Unprecedented efficiency

The Trans-Siberian Railway was built in record time. 7.5 thousand kilometers of road were built in just 12 years, although many difficulties arose during construction. None of the world's buildings of that time could boast of such efficiency in execution.

All work was done by hand using simple tools: a saw, an axe, a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Up to 600 km of railway track were laid annually, human labor was not only not protected, it was used until the workers were completely exhausted. Many of them died in the harsh Siberian climate.

Transsib engineers

Famous Russian engineers took part in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The laying of the Ussuriysk part of the railway was led by Orest Vyazemsky, a famous engineer. One of the stations on this section of the railway, the Vyazemskaya station, bears his name.

The construction of the West Siberian Railway, which connected Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk, was led by Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky, a writer and engineer. Its section of the road was put into operation in 1896.

The Ob and Irkutsk were connected by the Central Siberian Railway, engineer Nikolai Mezheninov supervised this construction.

The bridge over the Ob River was designed by Nikolai Belelyubsky - Nikolai Apollonovich was a major expert in the field of motor engineering and mechanics. The Central Siberian Railway was finally built in 1899.

Alexander Vasilyevich Liverovsky organized the construction of the Circum-Baikal Railway, one of the most impassable sections. Already in 1901, through joint efforts, a railway track was built that connected Grodekovo and Ussuriysk, and Vladivostok finally received connections with the central regions of the country. Thanks to the construction of this route, Europe was able to gain access to the Pacific Ocean.

Transsib expansion

The Trans-Siberian Railway was of great economic importance, and already in the first years of its operation everyone was able to see the practical benefits of such a complex and expensive structure. But during the Russo-Japanese War, traffic on a number of sections of the railway became significantly more difficult. The transport of civilian goods was severely limited. It became obvious that the 13 trains per day that the Trans-Siberian Railway is capable of carrying is a very low figure, which became a rather serious problem during the war years.

On June 3, 1907, a decision was made by the Council of Ministers to expand the Trans-Siberian Railway and build a second track on the highway. Alexander Liverovsky was appointed head of this project. By 1909, the Trans-Siberian Railway began to consist of two tracks, which significantly increased its throughput. Since the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War was unsuccessful, the Russian government decided that one of the problems that prevented the success of military operations was the problem of the lack of a continuous railway line across Russia to Vladivostok. It was the creation of such a continuous road that became the main task. Construction of the Amur and Minusinsk-Achinsk railways began. The length of this section was about 2000 km.

Completion of construction

The Trans-Siberian Railway was finally built in 1916, it ran from the shores of Pacific Ocean across all of Russia to Chelyabinsk. In the same year, the construction of the Amur Railway and the Amur Bridge was completed. The entire Trans-Siberian Railway was conditionally divided into four parts: Amur, Siberian, Ussuri and Transbaikal. The number of passengers grew, with more than 3.2 million carried in 1912. The road also served an important economic function and brought large revenues to the state.

The words of Mikhail Lomonosov are well known that the wealth of Russia will increase through Siberia. It is less known that the wealth of Siberia itself grew... by railroad. It was the construction of the great Siberian Road that served as a powerful impetus for the development of industry and the entire economy of the country's East.

By the end of the 19th century, the idea of building the Trans-Siberian Railway had matured and strengthened in Russia. Emperor Alexander III ordered to begin the necessary research and discuss the route of the future road in the Committee of Ministers.

In February 1891, a decree was issued on the construction of a “continuous railway across the whole of Siberia” from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok. Its construction was declared a “great national deed.” The highway was divided into seven roads: West Siberian, Central Siberian, Circum-Baikal, Transbaikal, Amur, North Ussuri and South Ussuri. Later, the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) appeared.

On May 19, 1891, construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in Vladivostok. All construction matters were in charge of: the Directorate for the Construction of Siberian Railways, the Engineering Council of the Ministry of Railways and the Bridge Commission. In February 1894, the Committee of Siberian Railways began its work, which included ministers of various departments; Emperor Nicholas II presided there, according to the wishes of Alexander III, and therefore the decisions of the Committee “had the meaning of laws.”

Everything was subordinated to the task of providing a through route to the Pacific Ocean in the shortest possible time.

The builders achieved a record speed of laying rails - 642 miles per year, which was one and a half times faster than on the Canadian Pacific Railway, recently built in America. The Trans-Siberian Railway was built as a single track.

In 1894, the railway was brought to Omsk, in 1898 - to Irkutsk. Train traffic along the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Railway was first opened in 1901. In terms of total length - 7416 km - the road had no equal. Contemporaries compared the discovery of the Trans-Siberian Railway with Columbus's discovery of America. The organizers of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 awarded the “Grand Prix” to the Committee of the Siberian Railway and Russian Ministry Railways for the implementation of an outstanding construction project and enormous work in the exploration of Siberia and the Far East.

Let us remember that over 1.5 thousand steam locomotives and more than 30 thousand carriages were delivered to the main line. Their production made it possible to fully load factories in the European part of Russia with orders. The railway, with locomotive and car repair shops, became the largest and most technically equipped industrial and transport enterprise in Siberia.

The Trans-Siberian Railway led to a revival of trade over vast areas. The road, laid from west to east, crossed the Tobol, Irtysh, Ob, and Yenisei. The main Siberian rivers turned out to be connected with each other and turned into convenient waterways for transporting goods. The construction of the railway contributed to the development of gold mining and the emergence of the coal industry in Siberia; mines were opened in Cheremkhovo and other places. Over 17 years (from 1900 to 1917), coal production in Eastern Siberia increased from 5 million to 115 million poods and continued to grow.

World practice has never seen railway construction of such a scale, carried out in such difficult conditions. natural conditions and within such a time frame.

The large-scale development of the Far East and the sharply increased freight traffic to the Pacific Ocean required the construction of second tracks on the Trans-Siberian Railway. This was preceded by a thorough engineering, economic and technical study of many issues. The initial increase in throughput was achieved through the device large quantity sidings between stations. Particular attention was paid to the reconstruction of mountain areas.

In October 1904, a decision was made to build a second main route on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The principles and technical conditions of the reconstruction were developed by engineer N.P. Petrov. A particularly large amount of work on laying the second track and reconstructing mountain sections was carried out in 1907-1910.

In Soviet times, much was done on the Trans-Siberian Railway to reconstruct it technically, which makes it possible to successfully cope with significant transportation of national economic goods.

Today, descendants remember with gratitude the builders of the Great Siberian Railway.

Yulian TOLSTOV, member of the VOLZD board

The Council of Ministers of Russia divided the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway into three stages according to the construction time. This is a most interesting map of the first stage of the Great Road: Chelyabinsk - Ob (1418 km) and Ob - Irkutsk (1818 km). In addition to major stations, the map shows, in the opinion of the compiler, the most characteristic details of the route.

In February 1891, a decree was issued on the construction of a “continuous railway across the whole of Siberia” from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok. Its construction was declared a “great national deed.” Thus, the Chelyabinsk station in the Orenburg province became the starting point of the first stage of the Trans-Siberian Railway - the West Siberian Railway.

The Siberian Railway was built according to simplified construction standards, which were approved by Nicholas II. It was allowed to take the width of the roadbed at the top up to 5.26 m instead of 6.1 m. Similar concessions were allowed in relation to the thickness of the ballast layer, etc. Only miracle bridges were built in accordance with the norms and rules.

The toy station at the Oyash station of the West Siberian Railway had carved decorations that were remembered for a long time by all those passing by. The station is located on the stretch Novonikolaevsk - Yurga, on the right on the platform there is a characteristic sign of the times - a kerosene lantern for lighting.

Transbaikal railway. Half-barracks on the Turin cliff, at the 753rd verst.

In the semi-barracks, according to the railway service regulations, lived the artel leader and his artel (a brigade of railway workers), who were responsible for a certain section of the line.

In 1896, the first section of the West Siberian Road was completed - a bridge was built across the Irtysh and a station in Omsk. The station was built in Siberian style, made of stone and quite comfortable. By all accounts, this was the most successful station on the road. The Omsk station grew quickly, traffic steadily increased day by day.

Ob station (Novonikolaevsk, Novosibirsk) was founded in 1894 on the right bank of the Ob. The station was assigned class III, and a modest standard wooden station was built at a cost of 18 thousand rubles.

Soon a settlement arose here, which over the years became the largest city in Western Siberia and a powerful railway junction of the road network.

The hut of a highway builder in one of the highway villages. A painful, sad sight - some kind of pitiful semblance of a dwelling, which is unlikely to protect against rain and, especially, the harsh Siberian cold. But this is how they lived and conquered kilometers of the road in the thicket of the forest with an ax and fire, with hard work.

At the Taiga station on the Central Siberian Railway there was a large locomotive depot for those times, sometimes up to 60 locomotives turned there. After the discovery of coal deposits, the station became major point for sending coal not only to the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The bridge over the Yenisei was called the bridge of the century, since it was the first in Russia and the second on the Eurasian continent in terms of spans - 145 m. It was designed by engineer L. D. Proskuryakov. The bridge was built in a short time: 1896-1899. The important thing is that the spans were lighter than similar ones on other bridges, without losing strength.

The first train to Irkutsk arrived from Krasnoyarsk on August 16, 1898. Covered in greenery and flags, the “First Siberian Special Purpose Train,” which looked like a Christmas tree, slowly approached the station at 12 noon, shaded by the cross of the local archbishop. The locomotive whistle sounded on the Hangar!

Irkutsk station (1899) is located on the left bank of the Angara, in the Glazov suburb. The site for the station was chosen by the “Commission for on-site investigation of the construction of the Siberian Railway,” headed by the famous engineer N.P. Petrov. The station had significant track development, a large depot, behind which the white tower of the Irkutsk station is visible.

At the 1091st verst from Irkutsk, near the Cossack village of Kaidalovskaya, the so-called “Chinese crossing” (now Tarskaya station) was located. From this siding a branch diverted to the border, to connect Manchuria with the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER).

After the Apple Ridge, behind the Ingoda station, the Chita station, a large railway junction, is widely spread. The city was founded on the Chitinka River in 1653 by the Cossack ataman Beketov. The railway came to these parts in July 1900.

The characteristic landscape of the Trans-Siberian Railway: among the centuries-old taiga, steep rocks, a route was cut down and a steel path was laid. There is a country road winding nearby - you can only drive along the railway. This is a place near the Kruchina River, which flows into the Ingoda near Chita.

On May 19, 1896, the foundation stone of the Ussuriysk road, the first link of the Trans-Siberian Railway from the Pacific Ocean, took place in Vladivostok. The heir to the throne took part in the ceremony, future emperor Nicholas II. This station was built in 1894 (architect E. Bazilevsky).

Source

Set of postcards “Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway”, publishing house “Zheleznodorozhnoe Delo”, Moscow, 2001

Trans-Siberian Railway, Trans-Siberian Railway (modern names) or the Great Siberian Way ( historical name) is a well-equipped rail track across the entire continent, connecting European Russia, its largest industrial areas and the country's capital Moscow with its middle (Siberia) and eastern ( Far East) areas. This is the road that binds Russia, a country stretching across 10 time zones, into a single economic organism, and most importantly, into a single military-strategic space. If it had not been built in due time, then with a very high probability Russia would hardly have retained the Far East and the Pacific coast - just as it could not retain Alaska, which was in no way connected with the Russian Empire by stable routes of communication. The Trans-Siberian Railway is also the road that gave impetus to the development of the eastern regions and involved them in the economic life of the rest of the vast country.

Some people think that the term “Trans-Siberian” should be interpreted as a route connecting the Urals and the Far East, and literally passing “through” Siberia (Trans-Siberian). But this contradicts the state of affairs and does not reflect the true meaning of this highway. And the name? This name was given to us by the British, who christened the path not “Great Siberian Way,” as the literal translation from Russian should have been, but “Trans-Siberian Railway” - and then it took root and took root in speech.

And now “Trans-Siberian” as a geopolitical concept makes sense as a route connecting the Center and the Pacific Ocean, Moscow and Vladivostok, and more broadly as a route connecting the ports of the West and the capital of Russia, as well as exits to Europe (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Brest, Kaliningrad) with ports of the East and exits to Asia (Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Vanino, Zabaikalsk); and not a local route connecting the Urals and the Far East.

A narrow interpretation of the term “Trans-Siberian” suggests that we are talking about the main passenger route Moscow – Yaroslavl – Yekaterinburg – Omsk – Irkutsk – Chita – Vladivostok, the exact route of which is given below.

Length of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The actual length of the Trans-Siberian Railway along the main passenger route (from Moscow to Vladivostok) is 9288.2 km and by this indicator it is the longest on the planet, crossing almost all of Eurasia by land. The tariff length (by which ticket prices are calculated) is slightly larger - 9298 km and does not coincide with the real one. There are several parallel cargo detours in different areas. The track width on the Trans-Siberian Railway is 1520 mm.

The length of the Great Siberian Route before the First World War from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok along the northern passenger route (via Vologda - Perm - Yekaterinburg - Omsk - Chita - Harbin) was 8913 versts, or 9508 km.
The Trans-Siberian Railway passes through the territory of two parts of the world: Europe (0 – 1777 km) and Asia (1778 – 9289 km). Europe accounts for 19.1% of the length of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and Asia, respectively, for 80.9%.

The beginning and end of the highway.

Currently, the starting point of the Trans-Siberian Railway is the Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow, and the final point is the Vladivostok railway station.
But this was not always the case: until about the mid-20s, the gateway to Siberia and the Far East was the Kazan (then Ryazan) station, and in the very initial period of the existence of the Trans-Siberian Railway - at the beginning of the 20th century - the Kursk-Nizhny Novgorod (now Kursk) station in Moscow . It is also necessary to mention that before the revolution of 1917, the starting point of the Great Siberian Road was considered to be the Moscow station of St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire.

Vladivostok was not always considered the final destination: for a short time, from the very end of the 90s of the 19th century until the decisive land battles of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-05, contemporaries considered the naval fortress and the city of Port to be the end of the Great Siberian Road -Arthur, located on the coast of the East China Sea, on the Liaodong Peninsula leased from China.
You can learn about the geographic limits of the Trans-Siberian Railway (extreme points in the west, east, north and south).

Construction: main milestones.

Start of construction: May 19 (31), 1891 in the area near Vladivostok (Kuperovskaya Pad), Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Nicholas II, was present at the laying.

The actual start of construction occurred somewhat earlier, at the beginning of March 1891, when construction of the Miass-Chelyabinsk section began.
The joining of rails along the entire length of the Great Siberian Road occurred on October 21 (November 3), 1901, when the builders of the Chinese Eastern Railway, who were laying a rail track from the west and east, met each other. But there was no regular train service along the entire length of the highway at that time.

Regular communication between the capital of the empire - St. Petersburg and the Pacific ports of Russia - Vladivostok and Dalniy by rail was established in July 1903, when the Chinese Eastern Railway, passing through Manchuria, was accepted for permanent (“correct”) operation. The date July 1 (14), 1903 also marked the commissioning of the Great Siberian Road along its entire length, although there was a break in the rail track: trains had to be transported across Baikal on a special ferry.

A continuous rail track between St. Petersburg and Vladivostok appeared after the start of working traffic on the Circum-Baikal Railway on September 18 (October 1), 1904; and a year later, on October 16 (29), 1905, the Circum-Baikal Road, as a section of the Great Siberian Road, was accepted for permanent operation; and regular passenger trains for the first time in history, they were able to follow only rails, without using ferry crossings, from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean (from Western Europe) to the shores of the Pacific Ocean (to Vladivostok).

End of construction on the territory of the Russian Empire: October 5 (18), 1916, with the launch of the bridge across the Amur near Khabarovsk and the start of train traffic on this bridge.

The cost of construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway from 1891 to 1913 amounted to 1,455,413 thousand rubles, about the cost of building specific sections of the Great Siberian Road.

Modern route of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Since 1956, the Transsib route is as follows: Moscow-Yaroslavskaya - Yaroslavl-Gl. – Danilov – Bui – Sharya – Kirov – Balezino – Perm-2 – Ekaterinburg-Pass. – Tyumen – Nazyvaevskaya – Omsk-Pass. – Barabinsk – Novosibirsk-Glavny – Mariinsk – Achinsk-1 – Krasnoyarsk – Ilanskaya – Taishet – Nizhneudinsk – Winter – Irkutsk-Pass. – Slyudyanka-1 – Ulan-Ude – Petrovsky Plant – Chita-2 – Karymskaya – Chernyshevsk-Zabaikalsky – Mogocha – Skovorodino – Belogorsk – Arkhara – Khabarovsk-1 – Vyazemskaya – Ruzhino – Ussuriysk – Vladivostok. This is the main passenger passage of the Transsib. It was finally formed by the early 30s, when normal operation of the shorter Chinese Eastern Railway became impossible due to military-political reasons, and the South Ural railway was too overloaded due to the beginning of the industrialization of the USSR.

Until 1949, in the Baikal region, the main route of the Trans-Siberian Railway passed along the Circum-Baikal Road, through Irkutsk - along the banks of the Angara - Baikal station - along the shores of Lake Baikal - to Slyudyanka station, in 1949-56. There were two routes - the old one, along the shore of Lake Baikal, and the new, pass route. Moreover, the pass route was initially built in a single-track version (1941-1948), and by 1957 it became a double-track and main route.

From June 10, 2001, after the introduction of a new summer schedule Ministry of Railways, almost all long-distance Trans-Siberian trains were launched on a new route through Vladimir - Nizhny Novgorod with access to the “classic course” in Kotelnich. This move allows trains to pass at a higher route speed. But the mileage of the Trans-Siberian Railway still passes through Yaroslavl - Sharya.

Historical route of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Before the revolution of 1917 and some time after it (until the end of the 20s of the 20th century), the main route of the Great Siberian Road passed:
From Moscow, starting in 1904: through Ryazan - Ryazhsk - Penza - Syzran - Samara - Ufa - Chelyabinsk - Kurgan - Petropavlovsk -